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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (31185)	10/8/2001 1:33:49 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

E, thanks for that material. I love most anything historical. I'm not sure why stereotypes have such a bad reputation. I think they often have a good degree of accuracy, which is why they became stereotypes. For example, I have traveled a lot as I'm sure you have, and I think the stereotype of Americans in other countries is all-too-often true: loud, demanding, xenophobic, picky. Last year in a Parisian hotel, we cringed at our fellow citizens in one case complaining why they could not have pancakes at breakfast, and in another case stuffing their bags from the buffet with enough food to last the rest of the day. I was charmed to see Charlie Chan turn up. I love those movies. The most familiar portrayer is Sidney Toler, who curiously was Swedish. Charlie's adversaries were usually Americans and Europeans, whom he always outwitted easily. He had a wife and a huge family in Hawaii, and was always portrayed as a straight-arrow family man. I never thought of him as comical. He did have a twinkle in his eye, and frequently made observations such as, "Insignificant molehill sometimes more important than conspicuous mountain," which I found entertaining and apt. He left out articles in his patois, but after all he was speaking a second language. He was always the hero. Truly, I think you really have to be awfully up-tight and nit-picky to find offense in his character. There was a truly bad stereotype in the movies, that of "Birmingham," his black chauffeur. He would be easily scared, and would say things like, "Feet do yo' stuff." That was verrrrry bad, no question. Blacks were cruelly treated in a gratuitous way in the old movies. JC